Posts Tagged ‘Twine’

Count on Jonas Kyratzes to play with the tropes detailed in The Hero with a Thousand Faces and deliver a brilliant Twine-powered text adventure that simultaneously examines traditional heroic literature values and revels in retelling the classic save-the-world fantasy tale. With The Matter of the Great Red Dragon taking place in the Land of Dreams one can also expect a subtle yet incredibly novel critique of modern societies too. Also a bit of well-placed humour.

D’you remember You Were Made for Loneliness? Y’know, fab Twine game about an android reasserting her sentience? Was maid to a lonely old woman? Came out last year? The one with all the loneliness? That’s the one! 500 years later, Alec, John, Jim, Kieron, Pip, Graham and the rest are all dead, and I’ll still be there ticking away by myself. Meanwhile, in the game, that android is living secretly in human society and has joined the police.

Follow-up game The Right Side of Town [official page] came out earlier this month, and I’ve finally got around to playing it. It’s pretty nice!

With the head of a goat, the wings of a crow, the chitinous legs and abdomen of a centipede, and bits of wolf and snake in places I’ll not trouble you with this early in the morning, I have found… maybe not my true form, but a pretty kvlt one. While Satanic rituals always come at a cost, Satanic ritual simulator Sabbat: Director’s Kvt [store page] is currently (and briefly) pay-what-you-want. It’s a jolly funny and slightly unnerving Twine game about trying to invoke dark powers and become something dreadful, then roaring into the night to find people who’ll adore and fear your new form.

From the moment you open your in-game eyes in Lightyear by Jim Bruges, to find yourself inside a manned space telescope crafted by text and choices and bits of Twine, you’ll also start to wonder whether this is a horror game, a technological thriller, an attempt to simulate living in space, or a story about loss and loneliness.

I hadn’t heard of the Qalupalik, eerie human-like creatures from Inuit mythology who lurk near the edges of ice to snatch disobedient children away, until I played Beneath Floes. It’s a free Twine game with lovely illustrations and music about one person’s encounter with a Qalupalik – yours. It’s also about storytelling, and what stories mean as they’re passed on and retold to different people across years. It’s a mite spooky and unpleasant and cruel and warming and I’ll stop listing adjectives if you go play it. Better you read its words than mine.

Psst, hey, here’s a fun idea for the holidays: make a thing. Not a vow to e.g. stop drunktexting – everyone finds that charming, I’m sure. Nor do I mean assembling a weird toy a young nephew received. Make a thing wot people can play and go “Coo I thought you were a worthless lump, but look at you now, some kind of literary giant with these fine words and lawks a lummy look at the clever design you’ve got going on.” Or keep it a secret all for yourself. Just make a thing.

After a fair while in beta, Twine’s update/remake/”sequel” Twine 2 has launched. You could use that. It’s a fairly big overhaul of the write-o-game-maker tool.

Free Twine game My Father’s Long, Long Legs manages to capture some of the uncanny horror of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki using nothing more than a fine selection of words and some cleverly applied sound effects. There are no jump scares here, just a gradual build toward…something. The story gains much of its power through the distorted vagueness of the threat – if it is truly a threat at all – and the obscure reasons for the changes that are occurring.

Veracity & Purpose is a free Twine game and an exploration of the works of fictional artist Robert Ells, told entirely through the lens of someone else describing his art as they experience it. Made by Castles in the Sky writer Jack de Quidt, it initially appears to be little more than a guide book to a retrospective. You read about a piece of art, you take in what you can, you move on. But returning for a second look can prove quite rewarding.

One of these symbols I drew on my arm is a lie. With Those We Love Alive tells you to draw icons on your body to represent key choices and reactions, see, which is a lark until you realise you’re marking and changing yourself in response to cruel and oppressive things. One icon represents something I like to think about myself, but know isn’t true. I stared at that lie a lot the next day.

With Those We Love Alive is a free Twine game by Porpentine, a moving visit to a mundanely monstrous world. Her writing is so carefully measured, vivid yet small bursts, and a soundtrack by Brenda Neotenomie wraps the world around you. It is a beautiful and terrible game.

Michael Lutz made My Father’s Long, Long Legs, which just so happens to be one of my favourite Twine games, and his latest release is right up in the top ten as well. The Uncle Who Works At Nintendo is a horror game that plays on schoolground jealousies, feelings of inadequacy and experimental Nintendo hardware. There are multiple endings, some of which aren’t quite as alarming as others, and the whole story takes place in the few hours leading up to midnight during a sleepover. Best played with headphones on, although sound is atmospheric rather than intended to startle in screamer fashion.

I miss having cats. Four years ago, I left home and became a professional itinerant, leaving my felines in the care of rich strangers. Today, I am bereft of cats and so, you shouldn’t take me as an unbiased source when I say, “Oh, god. Cat Petting Simulator 2014 is the best thing I’ve seen in a long time.”